The Seasonal Wrap Up

My buddy Jude rides a long board. The man pushed that skateboard for miles and miles and miles. He claims the only time he feels peace is when he's on that skateboard. I get it, and I'm not too different. I get it because I feel that sort of peace when I'm writing in my notebook.

Back in February, Jude went to Homestead, Florida for a 24 hour race. The basic design is this: it's an endurance race where the participants skate around a race track for 24 hours straight. This year was Jude's second time at this race. Last year, he did 194 miles, which is pretty amazing, if you ask me. It was his first time and a first time doing anything is a learning process, and in the case of Jude, 194 miles on a skateboard in 24 hours is impressive.

Going into this year's race, there were many things Jude had going for him. First, he has trained since the last race. Second, he had studied nutrition and some caloric tactics to take during the race. Third, technology, yes, even on a skateboard had improved from his previous experience.

This race his goal was 200 miles. His did 242. He managed nearly fifty miles more than last year.

Needless to say, I'm immensely proud of my friend Jude. I thought 194 was impressive until he did 242. And what's more, he will probably top 242 by leaps and bounds next year.

I want to make an analogy between the process and subsequent results of my friends Jude's skateboard race and the life and work of a writer. The activity and the product, of course, are not comparable. Jude and I are not comparable. And when it comes to it, I both love and admire this friend of mine so much that I wish to adopt some of his personality traits: his dedication and his stamina namely.

I will never push a skateboard a mile much less 242.

This first quarter of 2016 has been lucrative for me. I've written more, at least written with more focus, this quarter than the last few years. I've maintained this blog weekly, which is something I didn't do last year and I struggled with the year before that. I've faithfully maintained my A Scout Is piece that I promised Janice I would do. In many ways, I feel more like the writer I once was and that feels good.

However, The writer I once was wanted to be much more. I wanted to be prolific, yes, published, yes, productive. I've been all of those things, but since my son was born, I've struggled to just maintain my life as writer, and really, I've just struggled to maintain. He has taken priority over many things, and rightly so.

It's easy to become relaxed and lazy in our practices, whatever they may be. It's easy to quit outright. And when it's time to pick up pace, depending on the amount of time of the layoff or severity of relaxation or laziness, it's tough to regain the practice. Regaining the practice is only a small portion, because then comes the training portion and then the act itself. Perhaps writer's fitness, or writing fitness, is not all that different from any other kind of fitness.

I knew that back in December. I knew my time has come to regain my writer's life. And I feel like I worked pretty well on the regaining of my practice.

However, the most astounding part was not what I did, what I wrote or read, but the thoughts I had. Moreover than the thoughts, was my resolve.

I don't know what the second quarter of 2016 will bring, but I have a focused picture of what I want to do. If the first quarter of this year was for me like 194 miles on a skateboard, can you imagine what the second quarter will be?